Japan will curb all “asylum seekers’” rights to work and detain any not deemed refugees or who have made multiple applications, the Yomiuri daily newspaper has reported—a move which further tightens one of the developed world’s second-toughest anti-invasion systems.
From mid-November, Japan will only allow those it regards as bona fide refugees the right to work. The Justice Ministry estimates...

China is likely to beat the US in artificial intelligence under its national plan to exceed all other countries in the field by 2030, despite the Americans being its creators in the name of their own “exceptionalism,” the Alphabet Inc. chairman has warned.
“Trust me, these Chinese people are good,” the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., Eric Schmidt said at the...

The Malaysian government has imprisoned at least 132 illegal invaders from Thailand who have been arrested in a series of immigration police swoops in Kuala Lumpur, and seeks to imprison them for at least six months, local media has reported.
The Bangkok Post said that the Thai Labour Ministry “has warned Thai workers and job brokers against illegal foreign employment after 132 mostly Thai women...

China is testing a tiny bat-sized spy drone the country hopes will help it dominate a region of the atmosphere known as the ‘death zone’.
Also known as ‘near space,’ the area begins roughly 20km (12 miles) above sea-level and is regarded as a death zone for drones as the thin air makes it hard for them to generate lift. Simultaneously, the extremely low temperatures of the zone means that...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced plans to turn his country into the world’s strongest nation by 2050. David O’Brien of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China explained to Sputnik what could be behind Beijing’s push for global dominance.
Sputnik: What is your outlook regarding China’s future development? How likely is it to become the biggest superpower?
David O’Brien:...

Typhoon Lan, a storm with an eye 50 miles wide, is expected to lash parts of Japan with intense wind and rain, the country’s meteorological office has warned. Currently west of Okinawa, the typhoon is travelling north towards mainland Japan.
According to forecasts by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the “large” storm will barrel across the nation on Sunday before subsiding on October 23.
NASA...

Deaths caused by pollution topped 9 million in 2015, or three times the figure from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and almost 15 times as many as war and other forms of violence, scientists say.
The alarm was sounded in Thursday’s report by The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, an international group of over 40 authors writing on health and environment.
One in six premature...

China has developed a powerful new counter-terrorism laser gun, which can hit targets at 200 meters within one second.
The weapon has a handset for aiming, a back pack containing the power supply, a remote control and laser emitter, the developer Hongfeng, a company affiliated with China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation (CASIC), told Chinese English-language newspaper The Global Times...

A 21-year-old Chinese woman lost sight in one eye after playing a popular video game on her mobile phone nonstop for a whole day.
The young woman was addicted to a video game called Honour of Kings. She was having a gaming marathon, having played it for hours, when suddenly she went blind in her right eye, South China Morning Post reported.
At the hospital she was diagnosed with retinal artery occlusion.
A...

The Chinese authorities announced the closure of all North Korean companies on the territory of China against the backdrop of UN sanctions against Pyongyang due to continuing nuclear tests in the DPRK, a message posted on the official website of the Ministry of Commerce of China said.
Officials with the Chinese department said that all legal entities from North Korea, including joint ventures with...

Scientists around the world are watching the activity of Paektu volcano, which is located on the border of China and North Korea.
On September 26, scientists of the Korean Geological Institute initiated an international scientific conference, in which leading seismologists took part.
Paektu Mount is considered a shrine among the people of North Korea (DPRK).
The volcano has started showing signs of...

Tensions between the US and North Korea are rapidly escalating with both countries engaged in a bitter war of words. Gruesome sketches showing alleged US atrocities that Pyongyang uses in its propaganda campaign against Washington have been published online.
The graphic prints, showing US soldiers executing North Koreans, setting dogs on civilians, torturing women and leaving children to die during...

Nearly five million young people have volunteered to join or re-enlist in the North Korean military to fight Washington, KCNA state news agency reports. It says the volunteers want to send “millions” of nuclear bombs to wipe out the US.
Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to “tame” US President Donald Trump “with fire.”
The volunteers have gathered and said: “Let’s send...

The Antioch, Tennessee church shooter is an immigrant from Sudan and black power radical with a history of sharing pro-Islamic and anti-Western posts on social media, a review of his Facebook and Twitter accounts reveals.
Before 25-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson opened fire on churchgoers in Antioch, Tennessee today, he shared a variety of Black Power and anti-police propaganda on his personal Facebook...

China may have poured billions into making its universities more globally competitive, but its idea of a quality education is guided more than ever by the Communist Party.
In a drumbeat that has accelerated ahead of October’s twice-a-decade Party Congress, President Xi Jinping’s campaign to rein in civil society, online media and speech has extended to the classroom.
Top universities seen as insufficiently...